HealthCare.gov testimony: Just fixes

Eight pages of prepared testimony by CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner shed no new light on what went wrong with HealthCare.gov or on the internal decision-making surrounding its construction, but rather her testimony restates the administration’s plans for fixing it.

Tavenner is scheduled to testify Tuesday before the House Ways and Means Committee about the website launch. According to a copy of her testimony obtained by POLITICO, a “subset” of contractors that built the website haven’t met expectations.

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To address the website’s ongoing challenges, the agency has updated it several times with new code including bug fixes. It’s also adding more capacity, fixing signup and log-in problems, and trying to “stabilize” those parts of the website, allowing for the removal of the virtual “waiting room,” the testimony says.

The agency is also putting in place “tools and processes” to monitor parts of HealthCare.gov where visitors are having trouble using the site, according to Tavenner’s testimony. It also says that CGI, the main contractor that designed the website, has brought in additional staff.

“We know there is still significant, additional work to be done,” the testimony says. “We continue to conduct regular maintenance nearly every night to improve the consumer experience.”